In My Skin
Metascore
68 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 18 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 14 out of 18
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 18
  3. Negative: 2 out of 18
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  1. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: Dennis Lim
    90
    Without deploying reductive backstory or simplistic psychology, this fearless movie -- easily the year's best debut feature -- illuminates Esther's pathology as an extreme response to the mind-body split.
  2. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Marc Savlov
    89
    An antidote to holiday cheer like no other, this French tale of psychological horror is as harsh as they come -– it’s like finding a severed finger in your stocking and then finding it’s even better with hollandaise.
  3. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Scott Tobias
    80
    Makes heavy demands of even jaded viewers, who are unlikely to stomach de Van's anatomical noodling from the same curious distance. But for the brave, the film's literal journey to find the "I" inside the body moves forward with a riveting single-mindedness.
  4. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Stephen Holden
    80
    As unrelenting an exploration of isolation and dissociation as Roman Polanski's "Repulsion."
  5. Variety
    Reviewed by: David Rooney
    80
    Delves far more deeply into grisly physical manifestation than psychological motivation, making it seem something of an actorish vanity piece. But the drama is directed with arresting spareness and control.
  6. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: Andrea Gronvall
    80
    Fiercely uncompromising psychodrama infused with a keen intelligence and a sinister primordiality.
  7. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Robert K. Elder
    75
    As psychological drama, In My Skin falls short. But as pure horror, it's unforgettable.
  8. Christian Science Monitor
    Reviewed by: David Sterritt
    75
    The results are unsparingly perverse and oddly spellbinding.
  9. New York Post
    Reviewed by: V.A. Musetto
    75
    Needless to say, In My Skin isn't for everybody. It's recommended to viewers who, like Esther, want to feel something, no matter how distasteful.
  10. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Ty Burr
    75
    In My Skin takes that pain/pleasure principle and magnifies it until you're either dumbstruck or running screaming from the theater.
  11. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Ken Fox
    70
    A truly trangressive film as unsettling as it is psychologically acute.
  12. L.A. Weekly
    Reviewed by: Scott Foundas
    70
    The movie surely owes something to Polanski, Cronenberg, et al., in its use of an apparently placid, upper-middle-class setting as the background for perverse horrors, but De Van's fearless, high-wire performance is uniquely its own.
  13. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Owen Gleiberman
    67
    An experience you won't easily shake.
  14. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Jami Bernard
    63
    Even aside from the metaphorical aspect, this may be the first movie to give a precise sense of what drives people who self-mutilate.
  15. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Manohla Dargis
    60
    Spectacularly grotesque and literally nauseating, even for this usually intrepid moviegoer, In My Skin is among the more disturbing films in this blood-drenched cinematic season.
  16. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: Frank Scheck
    40
    A bizarre exercise in perversion that will well test even the most jaded art house audiences' appetite for the offbeat.
  17. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Michael O'Sullivan
    30
    It's a silly, if simultaneously deadpan and stomach-churning, psychological portrait of one crazy lady.
  18. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: C.W. Nevius
    25
    A bloody mess.

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